The NYPD has suspended two cops for apparently failing to respond to a Brooklyn mother’s 911 call in the hours before she was found dead, police sources said Thursday.
The officers were identified as Wing Hong Lau and Wael Jaber, both 11-year veterans.
The department’s Internal Affairs Bureau will be reviewing every step of the officers’ response to Tonie Wells’ address in Crown Heights, an NYPD spokesman said.
“The entire incident regarding any precinct communication and response issues are being reviewed by the department,” the NYPD said in a statement.
According to NY Daily News, Sources said the 22-year-old victim called 911 early Wednesday to report that she was in fear of her husband Barry Wells, 29, who was acting strangely.
A high-ranking NYPD source with knowledge of the case said the two officers received “incomplete information” when they were told to check on Wells early Wednesday.
“The incomplete information may have caused a delay in the response,” the source said.
But the source noted that there was still no way to justify the decision to blow off the call.
Cops were once again called to the couple’s Sterling Place home at about 10 a.m. Wednesday, after neighbors heard Wells’ 2-year-old daughter screaming inside.
Responding officers found Wells on the bottom of a basement staircase with bruises around her neck. She appeared to have been strangled, cops said.
It was unclear how long the young mother’s body was inside the house alone with the toddler.
“She was just with us for the holidays,” Well’s aunt Katherine Rivera, 46, said Thursday, chocking back sobs. “We’re in pain.”
Barry Wells, who wed the victim in March, was apprehended Wednesday night.
After spending several hours in police custody, the suicidal suspect was taken by ambulance to Kings County Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, sources said.
“Wells told police he wanted to kill himself after being detained on Wednesday,” a source said.
No charges were filed as of 2 p.m. Thursday.
Wells was recently pregnant, but suffered a miscarriage after a domestic quarrel, a cousin told the Daily News. A police source said Wells was eight months pregnant when she lost her baby last month.
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